Syrian promise to halt attacks met with scepticism

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad receives the gift of a sword from religious leaders in Damascus. Syria's plan to halt military activity has been met with international scepticism. Photograph: Sana/Reuters

Syria has announced a halt to all military operations from Thursday morning as required by Kofi Annan's UN-backed plan for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the bloodiest crisis of the Arab spring.

On a day that saw intense international diplomatic activity and more attacks across the country, the Assad regime appeared to have bowed to mounting pressure to comply with the demand for an end to the violence.

Sana, Syria's state news agency, quoted a "responsible source" in the defence ministry as saying "the mission to combat criminal and terrorist activity by armed groups had been successful" and that it would end on Thursday morning.

Syrian opposition activists and western governments were sceptical about the sincerity of the statement from Damascus, which was hailed by Annan during a visit to Tehran as a sign that Assad was preparing to comply.

"If everyone respects it, I think by six in the morning on Thursday we shall see improved conditions on the ground," the former UN chief said. But he added that the Syrian government was still seeking assurances that opposition forces would also stop fighting "so that we could see cessation of all the violence".

In Istanbul, the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, accused Assad of "playing for time".

Sana said that the "heroic armed forces" would be ready to respond to any attack. Syria told Annan it reserved the "right to respond proportionately to any attacks carried out by armed terrorist groups".

Diplomats monitoring the situation said Wednesday's violence was less intense than in the previous few days, though military operations were continuing. Reports from Hama described 20 tanks moving into the city centre, while the central town of Rastan came under army shelling.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission reported at least 16 people killed, most of them in Deraa, Homs and the Damascus area. Five of those died under torture, it said. Fighting was also reported between government troops and the rebel Free Syrian Army in Deraa and Idlib. Shots fired by Syrian troops hit a refugee camp on the Turkish side of the border.

Avaaz, the citizen journalist network, said people in Deir Baalba discovered the bodies of 18 local men who had been taken to a warehouse where they were tortured before being executed and their bodies set on fire. "The army is exploiting the ceasefire to arrest more dissidents than ever and security forces are burning houses," activist Omar al-Hariri told Reuters.

Annan is under pressure from the US, Britain and France to report swiftly on whether the ceasefire is being strictly observed – though in the absence of UN monitors, due to be deployed later, it is unclear how he will make that judgment. If it is not, diplomats said, these governments will be pressing for an immediate return to the UN security council in the hope that Russia will stop shielding Assad from censure or sanction.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, is said to have urged his Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Muallim, to comply with the ceasefire demand. But the fear is that Annan may be tempted to let the deadline slip.

Keeping up the pressure, David Cameron warned Assad that he will face a "day of reckoning" for his "savagery" and accused the Syrian leader of using the Annan plan – backed by the Arab League as well as the UN – to conduct "rolling military operations" against heavily populated areas.

"Far from fulfilling their commitments, the regime is cynically exploiting the window of diplomatic negotiations to crack down even harder on its own people," the prime minister said in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on the second leg of his Asian tour. Cameron added: "Together we must ensure that there is a day of reckoning for Assad's crimes."

Annan told the security council on Tuesday that "members of the opposition have indicated to us, and publicly, that they would observe a cessation of all forms of violence provided that Syrian forces withdraw from cities."

Speaking in Tehran alongside Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, Annan warned that any further militarisation of the conflict would be disastrous. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have repeatedly called for the anti-Assad rebels to be armed. Iran has backed Assad loyally throughout.

According to the UN, government forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the past year. Syria says rebels have killed more than 2,600 security personnel.

In the absence of international readiness to intervene in Syria along the lines of Nato's role in Libya last year, no government is prepared to admit that diplomatic efforts have been exhausted, even if the prospects for success are privately rated as slender to nonexistent.

Annan's six-point plan involves a ceasefire, humanitarian and media access, the release of prisoners and a Syrian-led political process for transition to a democratic future.